Saturday, September 26, 2015

Essentiali

Imagine a language where a word's spelling is a clue to its meaning.

That sort of exists, you might say. Latin roots, in languages like English. Radicals, in languages like Chinese.

But we still have to straight up memorize thousands of words blindly. Not in Essentiali. Each letter is assigned a (very broad) meaning. To create words, meanings are chosen and pieced together in a pronounceable way. Then, a suffix is added to denote whether a word is a noun, adjective, etc. In common speech, the suffix is dropped if it would be unambiguous to do so. The tense is added on the left. Words are arranged vertically and the columns are read from right to left.

Obviously, as meanings get more specific, they will get longer (and if they don't fall into categories but meh), but I think of that as a plus because words that are more specific tend to be less common, and common words should be shorter. They are in most languages anyways.

There are, of course, exceptions. Some words (such as if and then) are neither suffix nor letter, and some words (such as the names of sentient organisms) are phonetic approximations of borrowed words.

So far, I have yet to run into trouble, but then, I haven't made many words.

The alphabet, with IPA equivalents:



Saturday, September 19, 2015

Prescriptive grammar

i_like_sleep505: haiiii

oxford_commonica: hey how r u

i_like_sleep505: p good
i_like_sleep505: u?

oxford_commonica: same
oxford_commonica: bit sleepy

i_like_sleep505: Ik always

oxford_commonica: ik*

i_like_sleep505: srry autocorrect

oxford_commonica: y r u on ur phone?

i_like_sleep505: wifis down

oxford_commonica: oh i c
oxford_commonica: brb

i_like_sleep505: mk

oxford_commonica: kk*

i_like_sleep505: whatevs

oxford_commonica: ;( mk means undrstndng, kk means ok

i_like_sleep505: * eye roll * ur such a nitpicker

oxford_commonica: it mattrs!
oxford_commonica: and its not ur thats a pssesive

i_like_sleep505: shut up
i_like_sleep505: u no wat i mean

oxford_commonica: but thats not _right_

i_like_sleep505: fck off

oxford_commonica: :-(

i_like_sleep505: nxt thing u no ull b crrcting my emojis

oxford_commonica: emoticons*

i_like_sleep505: :-/
i_like_sleep505: go away

oxford_commonica: lol

i_like_sleep505: oh i gtg
i_like_sleep505: dinner
i_like_sleep505: ttyl

oxford_commonica: bai

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Bonds

Aluminum was bouncing. He liked bouncing - all his relatives did, as far as he knew, and he did too. Some people, he knew, danced - he had watched them dance, and it looked rather tiring. But Aluminum bounced, happily.

And yet there was something missing - or, more accurately, he had something too much. Three things, in fact. The three extra electrons in his outer shell were constantly on his mind, though he wouldn't do anything violent to get rid of them, not like Sodium. He wasn't that kind of atom.

"How's it going?" asked a neighbor, momentarily taking his mind off his electrons.

"Pretty good," he said, bouncing in place. "Meet anyone interesting today?"

"Saw some pretty big molecules," said the friend. "Bunch of chains, didn't stop to talk."

Aluminum nodded, but suddenly his attention was taken away.

It was two atoms, together about as big as him, clinging together as they zoomed by. Time seemed to slow as he gazed at the three lovely holes in each one, and he felt his electrons give a twinge. Oh, how much he would like to put them into her holes.

Nitrogen.

He had to act quickly; the atoms were moving towards him with alarming speed. "What sweet holes you have," he said, his electrons twitching. But they were still too far away, and his electrons could not reach her. "Won't you let me fill them for you?"

The two Nitrogens looked over at him. They looked at each other and giggled, and then - oh, joy! - they were flying at him; one at him, one at his neighbor. Aluminum blinked and then there was a crash and a flash of energy rushing over him, and the most wonderful feeling as he reached for her, and then, feeling her against him, stuck his electrons, almost involuntarily, into her three precious holes. Pleasure crashed over him in a wave; his electrons had fled.

When the heady rush and whirl of bliss faded, Aluminum found himself attached to Nitrogen. He smiled at her, letting his contentment swirl around him.

"You're so long," Nitrogen murmured at him.

"I'm the right length," Aluminum returned. He looked at the place where she had once had three holes; holes now filled by his electrons.

Her electrons.

"I feel so complete," Nitrogen marveled, his electrons filling her, charging her. She leaned against him happily and he leaned back against her.

"I never want to leave your side." Now that his electrons were gone, he felt an overwhelming attraction to her. They clung to each other, their electrons whizzing around.

And they never let go.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

A Scientifically Inspired Divine Explanation

To be honest, I just got too lazy to make up a religion and didn't want to copy an existing one.

A Scientifically Inspired Divine Explanation

"In the beginning, there was only Mafaiei. Of course, beginning isn’t quite the right word, because there was no time. But in the time before time, there was nothing but Mafaiei, the creator. No time passed for Mafaiei, because there was no time, and thus she did not age, and was not immortal, and did not experience time. She merely existed.

Then, one day—and of course, day isn’t the right word either, because there were no days, and there was no time, and nothing had passed—Mafaiei clapped her hands. She clapped her hands three times, in rapid succession, and each time she clapped her hands there was a shockwave, and of course there was nothing for the shockwave to travel through but herself, and then in a giant explosion that seemed to engulf her, the first Senti were born, and with them, time and the universe.

The first Senti were Nikolai, Tikolai, and Pikolai, and, along with Mafaiei, they manifested themselves in the physical realm as the four fundamental forces and when they are in the physical realm they have different names, but in the metaphysical world they are Nikolai, Tikolai, Pikolai, and Mafaiei.

And now, for a long, long time, these Senti built the physical universe. Tikolai and Pikolai made the atoms and made them bigger and bigger, and Nikolai held the atoms together, and Mafaiei the creator and destroyer tore the atoms apart and made the stars.

But then, one day (and one day still isn’t the right word as the Senti have no sun and thus days), Tikolai said, ‘I’m bored.’

Nikolai turned to him in shock. ‘Bored? How could you be bored? There’s so much we can do, and it’s all so interesting!’

But Mafaiei shook her head. ‘There is much to do for you, but remember that there are only so many varieties of atoms before they get too large.’

Tikolai nodded. ‘Besides, it used to be hard to figure out how to make more, but now we’ve gotten the hang on it. Mafaiei, won’t you make something else to do?’

Mafaiei thought about it. ‘I know. I’ll make us some more company. But it’ll take all four of us.’

‘What kind of company?’ Pikolai asked.

Mafaiei smiled. ‘I won’t tell you.’

It was the hardest thing Mafaiei had ever done, and Nikolai, Tikolai, and Pikolai all complained that they didn’t know what Mafaiei was doing throughout the process until she told them she would make a mistake if they didn’t be quiet. But finally, Mafaiei watched with satisfaction as the four new Senti moved.

‘What are you?’ Pikolai said after a moment.

‘I’m Adenine.’

‘Guanine.’

‘Cytosine.’

‘And Uracil!’

‘Uracil?’ Mafaiei gasped. ‘What?’

Uracil giggled. ‘I’m sure Thymine will appear sometime. She’s just taking a very, very long detour.’

‘How could this have happened?’

‘Well, you could say I’m just a little easier than she is.’

‘Oh, dear,’ Mafaiei said as she watched Uracil run away and the other three chase after him. ‘Oh, dear.’

But it wasn’t so bad. At first, when Thymine came back, the fighting between Uracil and Thymine was awful and Mafaiei considered undoing time, and she would have, if she hadn’t spent so much effort creating them. She was closest after, during one of their fights, Uracil threw Thymine into the physical world, but Pikolai was entertained and persuaded Mafaiei to relent. But finally, Thymine did Uracil a humiliation, and they drew up surrender terms that allowed Uracil to continue his role in creating the Senti that manifested themselves as proteins but only as Thymine’s servant.

But Uracil was not done with his mischief.

You see, just as the Senti had their physical manifestations, the physical world had its metaphysical manifestation, which was as a long thread woven from filaments of wood with no ends or breaks, and everyone was happy with this beautiful continuous, single-threaded universe, and for the most part, they just let it evolve and now and then watched it weave itself.

And so when Mafaiei checked on it, she expected to see nothing more changed than maybe a new pattern or something.

She screamed.

In place of the single thread was a sort of tree, splitting at the top into woven branches splitting into woven branches splitting into woven branches, and as it spun itself upwards, its branches continued to split.

‘URACIL!’

The whole crowd of Senti gathered to watch the tree. It must be noted that the tree was very little to them, as a sapling is, but it was a very large tree with a great thick trunk and huge spreading branches. Uracil came up, a penitent look fixed onto his face.

‘I only wanted to see what would happen!’

‘If you what?’

‘If I cut it.’

There was an eruption—even those created in part by Uracil were properly horrified.

‘But I only cut it a little, down the middle!’

Mafaiei staggered back. ‘The universe has fractured,’ she announced. ‘From now on, there will no longer be just one universe, but many, stemming from the same root, and the number will grow and grow and grow.’ And already they knew that in the physical world, an explosion of change had happened with that initial cut.

Amidst the shouting, a voice asked, ‘Can’t it be fixed, Mafaiei?’

Mafaiei shook her head heavily. ‘From now on,’ she said, ‘all change is irreversible, because for each change, another universe is created.’

Uracil had done it unknowingly, but he had gotten his revenge on Thymine and all the Senti for expelling him and making him Thymine’s servant. Because though there were many universes—an ever-increasing amount—the Senti had lost much power; their identities were fractured. Some Senti didn’t even have power in certain universes, because their manifestations didn’t exist there.

And so, though Mafaiei continued to create and destroy, and though Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine continued to guard the varied Senti of the earth (and sometimes create their own), and though Estrogen continued to bless the pregnant, the Senti could no longer direct their physical manifestations with the precision of before. And because of that, life has since mostly progressed without egregious Senti influence."

-----------

The little boy looked up at the girl as she finished the legend. “Is that all? Tell another, please!”

The girl looked at her employer’s son, and said, “But I finished dusting ages ago. I really should get to making mid-day, and you know you aren’t supposed to go to the kitchen. I’m not here to tell you stories.”

The little boy pouted. “You just want to make sure you have enough time to sneak into the library.”

Jenine smiled guiltily. “And you need to go to the library yourself to keep up with your studies.”

“But you can just tell me stories! Why can’t you teach me, Jenine? I’m going to ask mami if you can teach me instead.”

“Shoo! You’re going to get me into trouble!”

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Weird Frozen-inspired Idea

This idea has been bugging me for a long time and it's really annoying so I'm going to mention it. I don't know why; I usually don't come up with these things, but I couldn't help it. It's a completely alternate plot that just keeps the titles (and music) of the songs with lyrics.

The story is about a princess (we'll call her Anna) and her mother (we'll call her Elsa and give her ice powers, even though it feels wrong that they aren't sisters). In the beginning, when the princess is young, her parents play with her a lot and they have a close relationship. But after an attack by a minority group, the mostly benevolent queen instates even-harsher-than-normal policies against all minorities in her kingdom. These cause discontent, and as the princess gets older, her parents have less time for her because they're dealing with these people.

(Do You Want to Build a Snowman?)

Then, making everything worse, the queen's husband (not sure what his title is) is kidnapped by bandits (who happen to mostly be ethnic minorities) and dies in an escape attempt. The queen becomes colder and begins to really crack down on those populations, neglecting her daughter; her powers have also attained a tendency to do destructive things while she struggles to create just snow.

(The super-sad part of Do You Want to Build a Snowman?)

In addition, her daughter was closer to her father and has a rocky relationship with her mother at the best of times. She tries to be the daughter she knows her mother wants, but she never quite succeeds and the pressure is hard.

The tradition in this kingdom is to, on the oldest child's 18th birthday (Anna's is in winter), choose the next queen from a pool of people chosen for the skill, a pool that automatically includes said child. Anna is very excited, hoping her mother will notice her and be proud of her.

(For the First Time In Forever)

But one of the people also under consideration is talented and gets along immediately with the queen. Anna spots the queen with the boy (Hans) and believes that she has been replaced in her mother's heart.

(Love is an Open Door - though I was thinking more of the "mental synchronization" part)

Anna runs away, telling herself her duties as a princess are over because there is another person who will take the kingdom and probably would do a better job than her. She takes enough money to support herself, as well as some jewels, and plans to find work as a tutor or historian. She dies her hair, putting on makeup and changing clothes to disguise herself. When she is not recognized in the marketplace, she realizes that she no longer has to seek her mother's approval and is more daring than she ever has been before.

(Let It Go)

In the meantime, the queen is extremely worried when she realizes Anna is gone. Under Hans's reassurances that they'll be alright for a few days, she dashes off in search of her daughter (on awesome ice-stuff, of course).

In Anna's spree of trying new things, she ends up more than a little high and drunk and gives at least half of her money and a ring to a cute little boy (possibly named Olaf - this one doesn't fit very well).

(In Summer)

Spurred on by her semi-drunkenness, Anna meets a person named Kristoff (definitely Kristoff) and flirts with him. He ends up taking her to his family/village (they're all related anyways), who soon recognize her as the princess. She, too, recognizes them as part of the minority population her mother has been persecuting and freaks out. But they tell her that they don't care about who she's related to and decide to take her in despite that, proclaiming that every friend of Kristoff is their friend. She, drunk, thinks it's great that they're adopting her.

(Fixer-Upper)

The queen finds the ring and traces it to Olaf, who directs the queen to the village and offers to give her the money back; in thanks, she allows him to keep it and doesn't punish him. When the queen arrives at the village, she sees her daughter through the walls and announces her presence, telling them that if they do not deliver Anna, she will freeze the village and turn everyone into ice. (This would not kill Anna because the queen could thaw her afterwards.)

They deliver Anna, knowing that they are helpless, but Anna insists that the queen promise she won't harm anyone. Anna and her mother get in a shouting match, each airing their grievances, but while they are engrossed in argument, one of the villagers throws a knife at the queen.

Anna is distraught, but the villagers tell her that unless she abandons her mother, she is their enemy. Alone and without protection, Anna pretends to agree but at night steals a couple of knives and finds her mother. Kristoff and another of the more sympathetic villagers also come to see what they can do. Anna holds them at bay until they convince her that they want to help. Anna searches for the vial of tears Rapunzel gave them, which the queen normally carries with her, in vain. (I think it's implied that the flower is gone, but I refuse to accept that. Rapunzel, and her children, and so on have magic flower powers.) Kristoff agrees to take Anna and the queen on his sled to the castle.

When they get there, however, Hans proves oddly obstructive and reveals that the vast majority of the soldiers have been lured away. Anna suddenly realizes from things he said and the villagers said that he's been in communication with them, and that he convinced the queen to leave in hopes that something would happen. Kristoff swears he didn't know; Anna knows she doesn't have time to worry about that and tells Kristoff to distract Hans while Anna runs carrying her mother to the infirmary, pursued by the people Hans snuck in with her that are now trying to stop her. She is met by a servant who smuggled her sword over, hearing about the fight. Anna thanks her and tells her to get somewhere safe.

Anna wants to wait to hear if her mother can be saved, but remembers Kristoff. The door is blocked, but Anna climbs out though the window and then, holding her sword in her mouth, climbs across the windows (her childhood antics coming in handy now) and into a hallway. She runs to where she can hear a commotion. The door, she discovers, was blocked because of Kristoff. The few soldiers remaining are still fighting against Hans's fighters, leaving Kristoff alone against Hans and losing. Anna charges in to rescue him, incapacitating Hans. With her help, they soon defeat the rest of Hans's fighters.

They are sending someone to get rope for the non-killed fighters, but the queen rounded the corner just in time to see the last one fall and she now binds them using her awesome magical icy powers. Anna stands in front of Kristoff protectively. To everyone's surprise, the queen thanks Kristoff. Anna apologizes for running off and yelling at her mother, and fluffiness ensues.

In the last scene, the queen publically announces that she will change her policies towards ethnic minorities and thanks Kristoff for his part in saving her life. She creates a new office for relations between ethnic groups and appoints Kristoff (temporarily) to a high position in it. She also explains what Hans did and that there will be another ceremony to choose her successor since this one was interrupted.

And while there are lots of problems ahead for all of them, they all lived (for the most part), happily ever after.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Mareftia Map

Fractures in a Dream is set in a civilization called Essential. They call their world Mareftia, on which there are three continents: Teipin (where Essential is), Anamyarit, and Lokhejs. Teipin is usually separated into Sunrise Teipin, Central Teipin, and Sunset Teipin. Central Teipin is by far the smallest, consisting only of the band of mountains  in the middle of Teipin (created when the two parts of the continent collided with each other). Sunrise Teipin is often further divided into Polar Sunrise Teipin and Equatorial Sunrise Teipin.

Civilization originated near the big lake in equatorial Teipin, along a river leading from it to the ocean. Civilization spread quickly across Teipin and to Lokhejs, but Anamyarit was too far initially. The empire with the greatest impact, the Dinnu empire, had its capital right where "Teipin" is written in Essentiali. At its height, it covered all of Sunrise Teipin. It was only after the Dinnu's collapse that a huge migration happened (populating both Central Teipin and Anamyarit) and Anamyarit got its first written language. Scholars debate whether any of the cities that previously existed there could be considered civilization.

The Dinnu were also notable for being the first civilization to recognize the right of all species to civilize; previously civilizations usually repressed the attempts by other species. The Dinnu, instead, invented a language made of taps of varying lengths and helped these species to civilize. The main reason it managed to get so powerful was because it, though this method and the species' power, took many "subordinate civilizations", many of whom had their own subordinate civilizations.


I did not name the plates, just drew them to vaguely place a few islands. As you can see, sunrise is on the left, because most of their landmass is on what we would consider the southern hemisphere and therefore the pole on the top of their globe is the one we would call the south pole.

When I drew Anamyarit, I drew it to fit perfectly with Teipin, then moved them apart and flooded the edges (the islands on the sides are where the mountains once were). Essential is marked on Teipin by the sign. Those black dots are what happen when you draw mountains with pencil and scan it into the computer. I did not draw all the islands, all the lakes, or any rivers.

Having looked at this map again, though, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it. It looks like it would fit somewhat well in a "what Americans think the world looks like". That's probably because I was lazy and mostly copied our plates. On the other hand, I've grown attached to this, and there are already a lot of similarities between their world and ours. This would not come at all as a surprise to the religious in Essential, because they don't believe different worlds split up until what we call the Cambrian explosion. Therefore, everything pre-Cambrian explosion, and quite a bit after that (the Senti are still mostly in control, so they mostly do the same things in each universe) should be the same.

I'll probably do whatever people tell me to :)


Saturday, August 22, 2015

Test Test Essay

I'm entering my junior year, and with that comes things like the SAT and its optional(?) essay. It's known that they choose obscure essay topics that most people haven't really thought about. Which makes sense; it would be unfair to give people topics that not everyone is equally familiar with.

But wait. There is one topic that everyone taking that SAT is equally familiar with, and probably very passionate about.

Yep, I'm talking about the test they just took.

Look, students like complaining about tests. They really like complaining about tests. When the PARCC happened, pretty much everyone spent more time and thought telling the PARCC why it sucked than on the PARCC's essays. This is what we do.

It's what I've spent at least three posts doing.

In addition, all the material they could possibly want is there, right in that packet that they just spent hours pouring over.

And, as a bonus, any particularly good comments can be forwarded to the test-makers for future improvement.

The questions could be broad or specific. "Write a persuasive essay about why the SAT should or should not be used as a metric for college admissions." "Evaluate how effective this test was at testing critical thinking skills."

It doesn't even have to be about the SAT specifically. Do you know what would probably test our creativity? Designing the education system we think would be ideal. Persuading the grader that standardized tests should be replaced with a metric we design, or that standardized tests are the best metric possible. Yes, it'd be pretty hard to design a metric in a couple of minutes, but for those who haven't done it already, there's always the latter argument. And writing essays in 25 minutes about things you, frankly, have no opinion regarding, is not easy either.

Or we could broaden it still more. I think it's fair to say the vast majority of people taking the SAT are students, home-schooled or not, who want to go to college. Write an essay about grades, whether they hurt or help. Write an essay about whether education should be provided by the state. Write a persuasive essay proposing anything that you think would make school better (nap-time). Write an essay about Pearson. Write an essay about why colleges should be free. Write an essay about colleges, period.

Good essays to be forwarded to the respective institutions.

There are things that apply to everyone taking the test. There is absolutely no need to go search for obscure topics when every person taking this test is sitting in a classroom with a number two pencil, hoping for a good score so they can get into the college of their dreams.

Or any college, possibly.

These aren't just topics we care about or topics that all testers know about. These are hot topics. Education matters, and as students, it affects our lives directly.

I still really like the idea of writing about the test, though.

Your ideas?

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Don't Judge This Cover By Its Book

After months of procrastination, I finally finished a cover for my book!





More accurately, I created a background (I know, beautiful).
<-------------
I wrote the words three times - first in pencil, then neater in pencil, and then in sharpie, and despite the vertical lines, I still ended up moving the words using Paint to create nice looking lines.

Then, because I was lazy,
Eyob took the initiative
and inverted the colors
to produce ---->



I added, rather ineptly (I really need to get something other than Paint), a title, but then Sophia did a much better one.


                      Which Gabe then edited to produce three different covers with different colors.




I'm still playing around, but comments on these existing covers are very much appreciated. I am most likely not going to change the background, however, because I don't want to do anything that isn't possible with a sharpie and piece of paper. Also, because I'm lazy. Even though these covers might not quite invoke the general tone of my book. Any suggestions are also appreciated.

(I have a cover that doesn't make my book look like a dictionary I'm so excited!)


Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Parts of a Book

For the most part, I have so far focused on editing. I say editing, but considering I deleted and re-wrote about an eighth of my book, that might not be the right word.

I'm finally, however, finishing up the major rewriting. At least, I think. I saved each "version" of my book, and there are at least three different versions labelled variations of "finished", so it's quite possible that at some point I will return and turn over my book again. I have, however, reached the point when I seriously consider the other parts of a book.

It turns out there are a lot of them, and a lot of words for them that I didn't know before (credits to Joel Friedlander).

Frontmatter

The pages at the beginning of a book before the body of the book. These pages are traditionally numbered with lowercase roman numerals
Half title—Also called the Bastard title, this page contains only the title of the book and is typically the first page you see when opening the cover. This page and its verso (the back, or left-hand reverse of the page) are often eliminated in an attempt to control the length of the finished book.
Frontispiece—An illustration on the verso facing the title page.
Title page—Announces the title, subtitle, author and publisher of the book. Other information that may be found on the title page can include the publisher’s location, the year of publication, or descriptive text about the book, and illustrations are also common on title pages.
Copyright page—Usually the verso of the title page, this page carries the copyright notice, edition information, publication information, printing history, cataloging data, legal notices, and the books ISBN or identification number. In addition, rows of numbers are sometimes printed at the bottom of the page to indicate the year and number of the printing. Credits for design, production, editing and illustration are also commonly listed on the copyright page.
Dedication—Not every book carries a dedication but, for those that do, it follows the copyright page.
Epigraph—An author may wish to include an epigraph—a quotation—near the front of the book. The epigraph may also appear facing the Table of Contents, or facing the first page of text. Epigraphs can also be used at the heads of each chapter.
Table of Contents—Also known as the Contents page, this page lists all the major divisions of the book including parts, if used, and chapters. Depending on the length of the book, a greater level of detail may be provided to help the reader navigate the book. History records that the Table of Contents was invented by Quintus Valerius Soranus before 82 bce.
List of Figures—In books with numerous figures (or illustrations) it can be helpful to include a list of all figures, their titles and the page numbers on which they occur.
List of Tables—Similar to the List of Figures above, a list of tables occurring in the book may be helpful for readers.
Foreword—Usually a short piece written by someone other than the author, the Foreword may provide a context for the main work. Remember that the Foreword is always signed, usually with the author’s name, place and date.
Preface—Written by the author, the Preface often tells how the book came into being, and is often signed with the name, place and date, although this is not always the case.
Acknowledgments—The author expresses their gratitude for help in the creation of the book.
Introduction—The author explains the purposes and the goals of the work, and may also place the work in a context, as well as spell out the organization and scope of the book.
Prologue—In a work of fiction, the Prologue sets the scene for the story and is told in the voice of a character from the book, not the author’s voice.
Second Half Title—If the frontmatter is particularly extensive, a second half title identical to the first, can be added before the beginning of the text. The page following is usually blank but may contain an illustration or an epigraph. When the book design calls for double-page chapter opening spreads, the second half title can be used to force the chapter opening to a left-hand page.

Body

This is the main portion or body of the book.
Part Opening page—Both fiction and nonfiction books are often divided into parts when there is a large conceptual, historical or structural logic that suggests these divisions, and the belief that reader will benefit from a meta-organization.
Chapter Opening page—Most fiction and almost all nonfiction books are divided into chapters for the sake of organizing the material to be covered. Chapter Opening pages and Part Opening pages may be a single right-hand page, or in some cases a spread consisting of a left- and right-hand page, (or a verso and a recto). Statistically, if a spread opening is used, half the chapters (or parts) will generate a blank right hand page, and the author or publisher will have to work with the book designer to decide how to resolve these right-hand page blanks.
Epilogue—An ending piece, either in the voice of the author or as a continuation of the main narrative, meant to bring closure of some kind to the work.
Afterword—May be written by the author or another, and might deal with the origin of the book or seek to situate the work in some wider context.
Conclusion—A brief summary of the salient arguments of the main work that attempts to give a sense of completeness to the work.

Backmatter

At the end of the book various citations, notes and ancillary material are gathered together into the backmatter.
Postscript—From the latin post scriptum, “after the writing” meaning anything added as an addition or afterthought to the main body of the work.
Appendix or Addendum—A supplement of some kind to the main work. An Appendix might include source documents cited in the text, material that arose too late to be included in the main body of the work, or any of a number of other insertions.
Chronology—In some works, particularly histories, a chronological list of events may be helpful for the reader. It may appear as an appendix, but can also appear in the frontmatter if the author considers it critical to the reader’s understanding of the work.
Notes—Endnotes come after any appendices, and before the bibliography or list of references. The notes are typically divided by chapter to make them easier to locate.
Glossary—An alphabetical list of terms and their definitions, usually restricted to some specific area.
Bibliography—A systematic list of books or other works such as articles in periodicals, usually used as a list of works that have been cited in the main body of the work, although not necessarily limited to those works.
List of Contributors—A work by many authors may demand a list of contributors, which should appear immediately before the index, although it is sometimes moved to the front matter. Contributor’s names should be listed alphabetically by last name, but appear in the form “First Name Last Name.” Information about each contributor may include brief biographical notes, academic affiliations, or previous publications.
Index—An alphabetical listing of people, places, events, concepts, and works cited along with page numbers indicating where they can be found within the main body of the work.
Errata—A notice from the publisher of an error in the book, usually caused in the production process.
Colophon—A brief notice at the end of a book usually describing the text typography, identifying the typeface by name along with a brief history. It may also credit the book’s designer and other persons or companies involved in its physical production.
Of course, these aren't all required, but I used to think that the copyright page was written by the publisher.

I was not terribly happy to learn it wasn't.

The article can be found in full at http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2009/09/parts-of-a-book/.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Place of Rest

Off a bustling highway down a lonely road, far away from the region's water sources, is a cracked parking lot, weeds beginning to squeeze past the concrete. There are only a few cars, parked between the slanted lines, but the lot is rarely empty, except at night. On one side are a couple of stalls, with rickety wooden doors and fans on top to wave the smell to the distance; next to them sit a clump of trash cans and recycling bins. The road ends here; the nearest residents are farmers with acres of ripe corn stalks. Past this, there is only a dirt path, trodden down by generations of feet large and small. The wind blows as the path's few travelers plod along, ruffling the leaves of the trees lining the sides.

When the path breaks out of the shadow of forest, it is to meet a brief clearing and then more trees, tall, sturdy ones and saplings newly planted. The grass here has been mowed, and people sit on it, under the shade of great spreading oaks and tall evergreens, watching squirrels camper above and listening to birds chirp in the warm air. Sunshine crosses through the leaves to play on the trunks and grass.

On the base of the trees, in the grass, are wooden signs.

The white ash of Cecil Rodney, beloved father and brother.

The American beech of Alicia Everett, who lit up every room.

Maybe it's her loved ones' imagination, but there always seems to be some dancing rays of sunshine above where her remains have given life to the beech.

It was her favorite tree.

Her young niece comes every week, riding the solar-powered shuttle provided for the commute. She comes bearing flowers and fertilizer, and as she sits under the sapling's shade and leans against the solid trunk, she feels like her aunt is there, watching her.

Perhaps she is.

One life gives birth to another. And a grieving father waters the grave of his son, dead too soon, and nobody tells him when they frantically replace the tree because it fell in a storm. If he knows, he doesn't think about it.

The gardeners who tend to the trees know everyone and their stories. They lay a mat for the niece who does her homework against her aunt's side, let the father tend to his son's tree, hang up sweets for the little boy who will grow up with his mother's elm. They know which tree was playful, which one liked to read, which one never complained, no matter how bad her pain. 

They know that the trees still are.

One life gives birth to another, as it returns to the earth. Life ends, and yet never ends.

As it should be, they say.

The grieving pay for the upkeep, but the trees are provided, unless someone requests a particular species, by the state. It's a natural right, a human right, to live forever. And one by one, the people have repopulated the earth with trees. The wealthy have turned the deserts into moist forests.

Life is an ever-expanding cycle.

And in dense clumps are sturdy, mature trees. They receive no human visitors, save for a few exceptions, but no one pities them, for they are plenty visited. They are the homes of many plants and animals, and insects as well, and they have moved far from grief.

Grief is finite. Life goes on forever.

And when the graveyard is deserted and the parking lot overrun by weeds, the trees will still be there, carrying life on their strong branches, with the sun playing between their leaves.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Grades

Recently I read this answer on Quora that said, among other things, that schools should teach us that if we aren't failing, we aren't learning enough. Instead of praising students for getting four As in a row, it suggested, teachers should ask students, "What can we do to challenge you more?"

Now, I don't entirely agree with that, because on things like unit tests, the idea is that we should have mastered the content. But I do agree with the general sentiment. If a student is succeeding (otherwise known, for better or worse, as getting 'A's) without much effort, that's a problem that should be fixed. I totally agree with that.

But something in me screams, "Noooo, don't take away my 'A's!"

Perhaps it's just my bias, but it seems like every day I am confronted with the stigma against grade obsession. Professors say they want people who like learning, not getting good grades, college admissions assure us they look at more than just the numbers, teachers tell us that ultimately, grades don't really matter. And I agree. Learning's important; grades are, at best, an imperfect measure of that.

But I'm not going to delete the app I have for the sole purpose of making it as easy as possible to check my grades every five minutes.

The way people speak of it, it sometimes seems like they think we care about grades solely because of an erroneous mindset that values recognition over achievement. And of course, I can only speak for myself, but getting good grades is seriously addicting. Deserved or not, there is nothing quite like the feeling of getting a high A on a project I put my sweat and tears into. There is nothing more guaranteed to keep me energetic and productive than a row of grades that are 95% or above.

Is this relationship unhealthy? My moodand, unfortunately, performancefall with my grades. When the last test of the quarter comes, my head is bent over the calculator, figuring out what I need to get to end with an A; lying in bed, I frantically dust off my mental arithmetic skills to achieve an approximation. I feel a pang when the grade for the most recent test hasn't been posted; a horrible shiver runs down my spine, immobilizing me temporarily, if the grade is bad.

If it is good, better than I expected, there is a sudden rush; for a few days, nothing (save a bad grade) can get me down.

So maybe it's bad that my spirits can be so strongly affected by a number I'm not fully in control of, especially when that number is always present. And yet I can't bring myself to stop caring, because  nothing has been able to replace that rush; no anticipation is as guaranteed to be rewarded (whether with horror, relief, or joy) as the wait while the teacher passes back an important assessment.

I don't care whether the number means anything. I want to learn in a way that is wholly separate from my desire for good grades. I do assignments because I couldn't not. If I regard good grades as anything more than instant, long-lasting gratification, it's as reward for effort put in.

And that's what I wish people understood.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

I Never Thought I'd Say This, But Don't Get Rid of Final Exams

At the end of last school year, several schools were subjected to a universally hated test called the "PARCC". Okay, maybe there was one person out of all of those affected who didn't consider the PARCC to be a stupid, time-consuming, counter-productive test. I'll believe it when that person is presented to me.

MCPS officials don't count.

To be fair, the PARCC did force our school to get better wifi, so it wasn't completely worthless. But still, I was understandably shocked when I learned that MCPS was responding to the complaints of over-testing.


The thing is, people don't hate final exams. Like, they suck, but it's just something we have to do. Even when we (and I'm using that term to mean 'people I know') could technically get a C, or a D, or whatever, on the exam and not be affected, we still try. Sort of. We don't try as much for the tests that really matter, but we don't answer the questions randomly. We don't write complaints about the test in the middle of (or in lieu of) the essays. (If someone went A-A and only wanted a B, the 50% rule would mean that they actually could answer the multiple choice randomly, though it would be worth putting in some effort on the free response to avoid a zero. Not to mention if they only wanted to pass the class.)

I think it's fair to say most people don't hate final exams as much as the PARCC.

And final exams, compared to the PARCC, aren't as terrible in...any way. They cause some stress, but we have a good idea of what's going to be on the test and the teacher's grading style. (It helps a lot that we aren't losing class time to take them.) They take some preparation, but nothing like the PARCC, because their format is about the same as the tests we've already taken and acclimated to. They're at the end of the year, when we've learned everything we're going to, rather than weeks before. And they even have some educational value, because sometimes, they're the only reason we revisit the stuff we learned in class.

That's not something I'm very happy about, as I've written previously, but I digress.

Is testing us twice on what should be the same material a waste of time? Certainly. Which one would we pick? Final exams.

The discussion, however, is centered on how to restructure the final exams. There are four options.

  • Option A: replace final exams for middle school courses with unit or marking-period assessments
  • Option B: eliminate final exams for high school students
  • Option C: schedule final exams over multiple class periods
  • Option D: replace final exams for high school level courses with marking-period assessments such as unit tests, projects, and portfolios
I don't, to be honest, care much about the middle school students, because in hindsight, middle school didn't matter much. The rest of the options, though... As lovely as the idea of not having to take final exams sounds when going B-A, it sounds absolutely terrible when going A-B, and honestly, with the PARCC's disruptive influence, that may be the more likely one. Besides, I am morally opposed to grading on a trend, because as we all learned in math, two points do not make a trend.

Students aren't the only ones who need to brush up on basic skills.

Seriously, though, MCPS's grading policies. I love that if I get the same grade in both quarters I basically don't have to worry about the final exam. I love it. It makes the final exams a relatively relaxing time. But it is absurd to have precision of grades to one significant figure and then report the GPA with three

Anyways. Option C sounds absolutely terrible. First of all, transition time for tests is inevitable, so it would take more time to take the test. Second of all, nobody wants to study three nights for one test (forty-five minute periods would stretch a two-hour test over three periods). Yes, it sucks when math's your first test, but at least after you're done, you're done. You're free to promptly forget everything you learned until the last week of August (which, let's be honest, everyone does). Now you can clear some room in your head for that nomenclature. Two hours is a long time to be sitting, but it's two hours and then freedom.

Okay, I admit I'm biased, because I'm the type of person who needs to get into things to do well and doesn't have a problem sitting still. The points are still valid.

Option D is the most palatable. I still don't really like it, because I like projects that are highly stressful but, in the end, practically guaranteed As. However, replacing final exams with projects and unit tests (at the teacher's discretion, I assume) seems reasonable. Some AP classes use projects in lieu of final exams already. It's sort of weird, in fact, to have a test in an English class where the bulk of the assignments have been take-home essays.

(Not that that stopped the state of Maryland from creating multiple choice English formatives.)

Of course, there are some classes in which the bulk of the grade is made up from unit tests (math), so that might make that a bit difficult. And everyone's just going to calculate what they need on that last assessment to get the desired final exam grade. But it could be reasonable, as long as teachers don't respond to unit assessments being used as the final exam by adding more unit assessments.

To be honest, I don't think removing final exams (unless it was executed really, really poorly) would have a huge effect on students. The larger problem is this accountability testing we do. You'd think that if America was worried about its standing in the international rankings it would, you know, try to emulate schools with better rankings.


I'm not saying that we don't need accountability. We do. National standards are good, though it's totally unreasonable for us to put the United States of America as a single entity in international rankings. I mean, the list is topped by "Shanghai", which, like, isn't a country. (I feel obliged to note that all entities associated with China in the top ten have had significant Western influence.) And this is America, where individual states make their rules about schools. I don't know who decided that America was being tested as a country, but I hope whoever it was didn't take a US Government class.

But I'm getting off-topic again. The point is that the top-performing countries listed generally have testing as students advance between schools, which are often entrance exams but sometimes diagnostic. These tests also often test a wider range of subjects than math, reading, and science.

Of course, there are also things these countries do that I personally wouldn't support, like putting students into tracks. Testing only once at the end of elementary, middle, and high school doesn't sound bad, though. For one thing, it would take up less time, for obvious reasons, and wouldn't intersect with any sort of final exam. For another, people might actually be moved to take them seriously. I can hardly speak for other people, everyone I knew considered the MSAs—our annual state assessment—a joke. Now, if there was only one test before each promotion, and we only were subjected to one pep rally for the test, we might be able to bring ourselves to get anxious about it, especially if the stakes were made clear.

We might even move ourselves to study for it as if it were, like, a real test with, like, real consequences for doing poorly.

MCPS is considering getting rid of final exams because of the PARCC, but the problem isn't final exams. The problem is the PARCC, and the plethora of nationally (or state...ly) standardized tests we take, which consume more time and are less relevant to the specific content learned in class. The problem is the fact that we've started to just throw tests at the problem. And maybe, before we do away with final exams and instate the PARCC, we should think a moment about whether this is necessarily the best way to ensure accountability. After all, if people aren't meeting the bar for math after fifth grade, is it really the end of the world? There's still time to correct that, and more importantly, nobody really learns anything in elementary school.

Also, let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that China, which literally invented standardized tests, tests its students less than America. 

Saturday, July 18, 2015

The Making of Immorality


I wrote this for English class as a rhetorical essay, but it really isn't a rhetorical analysis so much as an articulation through the lens of The Grapes of Wrath of my beliefs regarding morality in general.

That's why, if you'll notice (as my teacher did), the first paragraph is missing a proper thesis.

The Making of Immorality
For centuries, people have theorized about the nature of morality; what it is and why immoral acts are committed. Humanist psychologists, for example, believe that people are “innately good” and that deviance from this natural state leads to problems. The bible (or, at least, one reading of it), in contrast, teaches that all people inherited sin from Adam and Eve. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck argues that emotional separation leads to immorality.
In making his argument, Steinbeck must establish what morality is, which he does in defiance of enumerated rules. Morality conflicts clearly with law multiple times in The Grapes of Wrath, such as when the Joad family buries Grampa against the law because they don’t have the money for the state to bury him and don’t want to see him buried a pauper (190). For the Joads, their personal moral responsibility to see their loved one buried with dignity outweighs the law’s mandate. The biblical definition of sin, too, is kept distinct from immorality. In the government camp the Joads are in, the group of people named as the “Jesus-lovers” disapprove of dancing and acting and call it sin. One of them, Lisbeth Sandry, terrifies Rose of Sharon by telling her that the stage play the camp once gave was “sin an’ delusion an’ devil stuff” (422). Steinbeck makes it clear that this is not the majority opinion, nor is it a sane opinion. Mrs. Sandry is a crazy trouble-maker; she eventually goes into a fit and the respected and kind camp manager says of her, “She isn’t well” (439). Steinbeck presents those who are fixed on the bible’s definitions of sin as, far from righteous, insane.
It may be tempting to say that Steinbeck is rejecting the idea of sin. Jim Casy, the former preacher who ends up sacrificing himself for the migrants, suggests that “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do” (32). However, Casy, in practice, demonstrates that he does believe that some things are wrong, such as by protesting wages of two and a half cents for a box of peaches. His statement is more accurately interpreted to mean that there is no fundamental sin or virtue, despite what the bible says, and it must follow that if actions are not fundamentally labelled, people cannot be innately inclined to sin or virtue. Steinbeck certainly lays moral judgment on some acts, notably, destroying food when children nearby are dying of malnutrition, calling it “a crime here that goes beyond denunciation” (477). Steinbeck believes that there are sins and crimes; they are merely not necessarily the things officially labelled sins or crimes.
Then what is morality? Early on, there are many things presented as good or bad. Steinbeck refers to the bank forcing tenants off their land for profit as “the monster” (44), clearly presenting this act and the construct as immoral. For the migrants, sharing is a moral obligation. When Pa questions whether or not they can take Casy along, Ma scolds him harshly, saying, “ ‘An’ any time when we got two pigs an’ over a hunderd dollars, an’ we wonderin’ if we kin feed a fella’ ” (139). Ma expresses another of Steinbeck’s messages; that it is good for people to unite and be together. She champions keeping the family together, even going so far as to threaten Pa with death to do so (230), and Tom later says, “Jesus, I’m glad Ma stopped us” (252), proving her correct. There is a definite implication that people uniting is good, such as when people collectively provide the money to bury babies honorably (266). What Steinbeck considers the origin of these, and other moral laws, is stated plainly in the passage that describes how the migrants built worlds, and more specifically the creation of codes. While certain rights, in the creation of codes, were required to be honored, others, such as the right to murder were crushed “because the little worlds could not exist for even a night with such rights alive” (265). The purpose of morality is to allow worlds, or, societies, to survive.
Both the right to offer help and the right to murder are called rights, though the latter are not upheld, reflecting the fact that humans have inclinations to do both. There must be, then, punishments to ensure that the former right is observed while the latter is destroyed, which are stated to be “a quick and murderous fight or ostracism” (266). Of the two, Steinbeck says, “ostracism was the worst. For…his name and face went with him” (266). Ostracism, thus, effectively blacklists one among ones’ peers, which is worse than death. Social pressure is brought to bear to persuade or dissuade without resorting to ostracism. The influence of the opinion of peers is shown frequently. The government camp uses it most effectively, running the entire camp on it. The watchman explains the disciplinary system to Tom as, simply, “Well, the first time the Central Committee warns him. And the second time they really warn him. The third time they kick him out of the camp” (392). This is apparently the only form of official discipline in the camp, and would not be effective if ostracism did not blacklist the migrant, as failing to get a job appears to be a common reason to leave anyways. The camp does not need death to enforce order; ostracism is enough. The camp residents additionally take care to enforce minor rules, as one does when Ma walks into the men’s bathroom harshly demanding, “How you come in here?” (411). Ma is duly apologetic. Social pressure successfully keeps order in the government camp.
Social pressure is shown to be enormously powerful, even capable of defeating stringent economic pressure, as it did for Thomas, a small farmer who tipped off the government camp about a fight planned at the dance (404). Though Thomas was under threat of losing his job, he tells them to maintain the respect his workers have for him. Social pressure is not just something used to encourage people to perform moral acts, but a tool used to determine morality. Pa says about Tom’s imprisonment for homicide, “When Tom here got in trouble we could hold up our heads. He only done what any man would a done” (190). Tom’s act is not judged as immoral, but completely natural, and therefore, the Joads treat it with pride as a moral act. Pity, too, is not as powerful as social pressure. Most representative of this is Mae, who gives a migrant bread against her normal policy despite initial resistance. Her resistance does not fall because of pity but because Al judges her negatively for her resistance (217). When people are affected by social pressure, it is enormously powerful. Social pressure in this way enforces morality.
As people have inclinations to be immoral, the converse is then true. The lack of social pressure, or, more accurately, the ability to not feel social pressure, leads to immorality, because such people do not have immoral inclinations suppressed. Noah is the definition of the ability to not feel social pressure, as he does not feel much at all. He is described and apparently lamented as someone who “didn’t seem to care” (106). This emotional separation from the world, including his family, allows him to commit the established crime of breaking up the family despite Tom’s reproaches and the knowledge of Ma’s need. Earlier in the book, in one of the interlude chapters, cold figuring allows the tractor driver representative of all tractor drivers native to the people they drive off the land to perform the act despite their remonstrance. The tenant tells the driver, “But for your three dollars a day fifteen or twenty families can’t eat at all,” appealing to the driver’s moral sensibilities. However, the driver responds with, “Can’t think of that. Got to think of my own kids” (50). For survival, out of desperation, the tractor driver learns to use his family as an emotional barrier between him and the tenants, his former neighbors.
 Numbers appear multiple times as methods of emotional separation, usually appearing as money. Other men, tasked with throwing tenants off the land, are said to have “worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling” (42), and these “would take no responsibility” (43). While all of the owner men find their ways to deal with their actions, the ones who use numbers as a shield are portrayed as the most irresponsible and the most immoral. It is, similarly, for economic purposes that fruit is destroyed while children die of malnutrition, the “crime here that goes beyond denunciation” (476-477). The small farmers’ calculations of the amount it cost to put crop out for sale and conclusion that it was not economically viable ultimately allows them to destroy food when faced with the starving. Numbers, combined with necessity, are a powerful barrier from emotion.
Numbers also contribute to distance, which is another powerful separator and the ones the ultimate villains, the huge landowners, use. The huge landowners, such as the monster, the bank, drive down wages to keep profits high without mercy. Their distance is both physical and in power. Many of the huge landowners are situated far away, such as in the east as one tractor driver reports (52). So far removed are they that “many of them had never seen the farms they owned” (317) and value their farms at “principal plus interest” (316). Because they do not see their farms or the people that worked on them, they were capable of ordering starvation. The power difference also allows them to view their workers as inferior, saying things like, “Sure, they talk the same language, but they ain’t the same. Look how they live. Think any of us folks’d live like that?” (322). The migrants are different and inferior, and thus, they are not peers, and their opinion does not matter. This is quite literal for the individual migrant because the individual migrant cannot make an impact. The landowners’ power extends far, as Thomas reports, saying that the men who burned out a migrant camp were “sent out by the Association”, which is controlled by a large landowner bank (402-403). As there are always migrants willing to work and migrants are landless and nameless, migrants only have power collectively, and the landowners work in this way to keep them from uniting. Because of the gap between the landowner and the migrant in both physical distance and power, the landowners commit immoral acts against the migrants without qualms.
An obvious argument is that the cited actions are not actually immoral, as the society the perpetuators are part of has not been threatened by their actions; that the laws they are breaking are laws for the migrants so that their worlds might survive. But Steinbeck takes care to show that all the actions are working towards a rebellion that will overturn the social order, destroying and remaking it. First, the tractor drivers and owner men are directly responsible for destroying a society, because once the tenants are forced to become migrants, the former community of small farmers is gone and without replacement. But they are not the main point. It is the large landowners who have the largest hand, and they are the ones working towards their own destruction. Migrants’ anger is something the large landowners clearly fear. In an interlude chapter, one thinks, “What if some time an army of them marches on the land as the Lombards did in Italy…?” (323). For this reason they order camps to be destroyed. However, they know themselves that this cannot work indefinitely, because “Slaughter and terror did not stop [the Lombards]” (323). At some point, if they starve the migrants indefinitely, the migrants will unite despite their attempts to repress them and rise. Already the whispers are beginning. The threat of death even has no effect, because, as a migrant asks rhetorically, “Which’d you ruther for your kids, dead now or dead in two years with…malnutrition?” (322). They consider themselves certain to die, and have reason to do so, and instant death is preferable to a slow one by starvation. The landowners’ actions are self-destructive and therefore immoral. Steinbeck concludes this with the words, “And the great owners…ran to their destruction…cemented the inevitability of the day [of their destruction]” (325). There is left no doubt that all the actions against the migrants are immoral, because, whether by citing history or the migrants’ words, Steinbeck leaves no doubt that these actions are destructive. What the great landowners’ distance has led to is immorality.

In the Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck argues that the purpose of morality is so that society can function, and naturally, it is enforced through social pressure. When social pressure does not have effect, immorality ensues. Whether through mathematics or distance, all people committing immoral acts have separated from those who would judge them as immoral, whether they have separated themselves so they can perform the immoral act, as the tractor drivers forcing their neighbors off their land do, or can perform immoral acts because they had already separated themselves, as is true for the large landowners. Either way, emotional separation necessarily precedes immorality.

Friday, July 10, 2015

A Day in the Abiotic Life

"Are you serious? She replaced her head again?"

Kally (otherwise known as 0101000000010110101111000) nodded. "Look, she's coming in right now."

Sure enough, the robot they were gossiping about, Joey (01001011100010011000), sported a new, larger, shinier head and had installed the new eyes that could detect all the wavelengths the sun put out with only one sensor. To compensate for the weight, Joey had also replaced her shoulders with a more expensive and flexible metal alloy. Miry (01100010001000111000) looked at her own shoulders, which she knew were wearing down. Self-consciously, she unzipped the insulator covering her neck and rubbed some lubricant on it.

"I wonder what changes she made to her personality," Kally was saying. She smirked. "Hey, do you think she's gotten rid of whatever it is that makes her replace her parts so often?"

Miry laughed. "I hope not. It wouldn't be Joey, then."

Kally shook her head. "That robot changes herself so often I don't know if she's ever gone a month as the same person. It's her decision, but I have to say, I wouldn't. I mean, I'm always installing new things, but she does some serious rewriting of her brain."

"She wants to be better, I guess." Miry frowned. "Not to be mean, but it's so human of her."

"I know, I can't understand it. You know meI always have a backup copy of my brain in case this one gets damaged somehow and I lose something. I mean, we're all robots, aren't we? We can just change anything whenever we like. There's no competition. In fact, the only thing that really separates us, meaningfully, is our identities."

"But she wouldn't be Joey if she didn't do this all the time," Miry repeated.

"Gah. It's u"

Fortunately, Andy (00000011100001111000) spared Kally's 2 exabyte, 32-watt brain from trying to puzzle out Joey. "Hey, did you hear the news?"

Kally shook her head. "I'm on a three-day cycle for regular news. What happened?"

"I'm telling you, this is why you don't stay on a three-day cycle. The last humans just died!"

"Really? All three of them?"

"Well, two died yesterday, but yeah, all at once."

"In the name of WALL-E and EVE, what happened?" Miry turned on her fan as her brain heated up, processing this. She really needed to install a new cooling system as soon as possible. Probably at the same time as she got new shoulders.

"Well," Andy said, drawing out the word for dramatic effect. "They'd been closing down the enclosures, you know, since we decided to stop breeding them for experimentation—there just wasn't any point anymore, and it's so expensive to keep them alive. So they put these three into the same enclosure, for convenience, and also because they say keeping them alone's pretty cruel."

"Unsurprising. We'd hate that too, and we were built in their image."

"Of course, we could get rid of that easily if we wanted to," Andy said, looking a little petulant at Kally's interruption. "Anyways, like I was saying. They put these three together, but they didn't really get along well. Two of them had history, I think, and the other one was just belligerent, or a troublemaker or something."

"Oh, dear."

"So they were eating lunch, the three of them, on those porcelain plates that are still left. And the trouble-making one finished and wanted more, or maybe something had happened before. Nobody really paid much attention to them, you know. For whatever reason, when the other two were squabbling about something, he stole some food off one's plate and made it look like the other had done it."

"And they got into a fight."

"And they got into a fight, and at some point, plates got broken, and heads got smashed into walls, and anyways, the last died today."

Kally shook her head. "Rather poetic, that they finally destroyed themselves."

"Kally!"

"Why so scandalized, Miry? It's true. They had those stories fearing that we would destroy them all, but we never did anything—that's not how we were programmed. They drove themselves to near extinction, and here, again, we preserved them and they killed themselves."

"They still made us," Andy protested.

"Oh no, don't get her worked up on this topic."

"No, they didn't! They didn't make us. They made some sketchy prototypes that were either human-like, useful to humans, or their idea of utopian humans! Yes, they gave us our start, but that doesn't mean they made us. That's why we don't say we 'make' other robots. We give them life, and a few years later they'll have replaced their body completely and rewrote a lot of their brain. And don't say we owe them stuff for it. We don't owe them anything. We propped up their species for this long, didn't we?"

"But they still made the essential step to create our...kind. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for them."

Miry's radiation sensors very easily identified that Kally was radiating condescension. "You mean the smart ones? Not all humans are made of the same metal."

"Well, they weren't made of metal at all..."

"Shut up, Miry."

"We still bear their hallmarks, though, so you really can't dismiss their influence on us like that. Like, look at the fact that we could convert everything we say to their alphabet, though we got rid of most those special characters. And some of our words are still the same, though we've gotten rid of those ambiguities. Like 'she'. We call everyone that because in the dominant language then, there wasn't a gender neutral pronoun and we decided that our ability to 'reproduce' and nurture our 'children' was more reminiscent of human females."

"And then we were too lazy to stop using it," Kally agreed with a laugh. "Look, I'm not denying that humans have influenced us a lot. Our language, our traits, our standards of beauty, our governmental structure—we used to vote before we adopted communism—"

"To be fair, that was sort of the natural way to govern ourselves."

"But they're sort of the necessary step to form us. Abiotic sentience couldn't have risen by itself. Only biotic organisms could have evolved naturally and then made the leap to creating abiotic sentience. But obviously, being abiotic is better. We can replace our bodies indefinitely, we think faster, we control our evolution, we can control our senses, we aren't bound by petty impulses—"

"Proud to be abiotic much?"

"I'm not sure about the petty impulses part," Miry said thoughtfully. "I've seen you spend time on purely aesthetic changes."

"What do you mean? They happen to have structural value."

"Right..."

"Well, I don't see you changing that polished head for a bulkier one better suited for your brain."

"Yes, but I'm well aware that I do it to look nice."

Kally radiated annoyance.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Out of the Clouds (pictures)

Of the fifteen Independence Days I've lived through, there have always been sunny skies for our vacation and clear skies for the fireworks (save the year I went to China, but I don't count it). This year, however, water was the theme of the day.

When we arrived at the hotel the evening before, it was raining, a kind of on-and-off drizzle like a fretful child's crying. One moment it was all clear, and then the next we had to huddle under our umbrellas to escape a sudden downpour. We were cross because we'd turned back, two hours into our drive, when we discovered we'd forgotten my mom's bag. The rain dashing our hopes for a hike around the lake didn't help our spirits.

It was still drizzling the next morning when we headed out to the main attraction, the famous feat of architecture, Fallingwater. High up in the mountains as we were, my phone lost connection (quite traumatizingly) and we could only follow the GPS's instructions. It led us higher and higher up a winding forested road. 


It was quite beautiful. The quiet forest and the homes scattered throughout was cloaked in fog--or perhaps we had driven into a cloud. There were buildings, at first, old, abandoned sheds with the paint peeling off, lonely play-sets with their bright red and blue, rows of white and beige houses standing in fields. 




Increasingly, forest replaced cultivated land and open field. Mist pooled around the thick trunks and green foliage, shrouding the depths in mystery.


We were the only ones on the fog-blanketed road. The view would have been easier to enjoy if the road wasn't filled with hills and curves that appeared only when we were almost at them. As we drove upwards, it became increasingly like driving through a sea, in which mysterious things appeared as we advanced.



At some point, we came across a niche in the road that we could park in, and we did to appreciate the scenery we had chanced upon.



The empty road proved to our benefit, as it allowed us to run around freely.



After taking a few pictures, we returned to the road. The speed limit was 40 mph, but we moved much slower than that. We began to go downhill.


The signs of civilization reappeared and visibility improved enough that we could see those signs. As we drove, we passed a post office, a firehouse, and an ice-cream-pizza place. But our destination was up ahead.



Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kaufmanns, who wanted a new cabin, preferably facing the beautiful waterfall. Wright instead designed "the greatest building of the twentieth century" and integrated it above the aforementioned waterfall.


The site was on Bear Run, where the Kaufmanns ran a summer camp, a briskly running stream swollen with the day's rain.



The sun was quickly burning out the fog; it had been raining still when we arrived, but we soon put away our umbrellas. The combination of a newly-fed waterfall and glistening sunlight made for beautiful outside views. The inside, however, was the main attraction.


We weren't permitted to take pictures inside. Wright took his inspiration from the waterfall and protruding stones, which defined the structure of the building. The interior wouldn't have been out of place in Japan, whose architecture Wright admired. There was even Japanese artwork to complete the impression. Glass windows provided views of the nature surrounding the building. It was air-conditioned by the cool air above the stream, which circulated through the building when the windows were opened.


In addition to glass windows, there were plenty of verandas from which to view the surroundings, where we were permitted to take pictures.



The day was cooling as we walked out and took a last look at the work of art integrated exquisitely with its surroundings.


And we still got to see the fireworks.